Veteran Sirius/XM host Mike Church launches his own internet radio network

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Kurt Wallace: This is Kurt Wallace and our guest today on Rare is Mike Church, national talk show host, filmmaker of several historically accurate films about American history. Mike, thanks for being with us today on Rare.

Mike Church: My pleasure to be with you. Thank you for the invite.

Kurt Wallace: Well, let’s jump right in. Sirius/XM channel, Patriot Channel, they have decided not to extend the contract with you, basically. I got your email, is this good terms or bad terms?

Mike Church: Well it’s good terms in as much as I will still be filling in on the Patriot channel and maybe another channel that they haven’t identified yet for Andrew Wilkow or David Webb. The last show that we did, we called it the farewell show. It was dignified and it wasn’t ‘hey you guys robbed me and you want to hate them and cancel your subscriptions now.’ It was more of a reminiscent about 13 years because it was quite a run.

We started in March 2003 and made it all the way until now. Depending on how you count a little over 13 years. We had some kind of good working relationship and we did. So, I left on terms with men who put me in the position to be the anchor of the Patriot channel when it was launched in 2006, on good terms with all them.

I can’t speak for the company because in 13 years, I can count on one hand the time I actually spoke with the company that wasn’t in my programming department. I don’t know about that but with the guys that I was working with we left on good terms. I was basically asked leave or told that there would be no place for me to continue. Yeah it was on good terms.

Kurt Wallace: You said in your email that you were offered a weekend show which you declined.

Mike Church: I was offered a weekend show, it probably would have been Sunday morning at 6 am central time. And, I knew that I had some other projects and some other things in the works that were going to be full time jobs for me and just pick up a pay check and keep a presence on the Patriot channel especially on a Sunday, I don’t work on Sundays was not going to be worth the trade off. I thanked them for it and I politely declined.

Also if I would have taken the Sunday deal, it would have put me in a situation where I would have had to sign some sort of a employment agreement that would have required similar conditions as a full time agreement. I wouldn’t be able to pursue in the manor in which I’m going to pursue the next step or the next phase. That’s one of the other reasons why I declined it. They did offer it and I did thank them for it that’s how the whole “will you fill” in came about and I said yes I would be happy to fill in.

Kurt Wallace: Personally, and I think I could speak for a lot of other people who have not heard your show and will hear your show in the future I’m actually saying congratulations to everyone because Sirius XM they have a limited ability for access. What are you about to do now? What is your next move?

Mike Church: That’s a great question Kurt Wallace. What do you mean you haven’t heard my show? You’ve been a guest on the show before.

Kurt Wallace: I’m talking about people who haven’t heard it before, people who don’t have subscriptions to Sirius/XM and that’s going to open a whole new world for folks who have never heard the Mike Church Show. This is going to be exciting for a lot of people because people have been limited in their ability to access your show which I have listened to many times, of course.

Mike Church: I hope that people are excited about it, especially for something that they haven’t heard. But, just for a little bit of historical perspective on this — when we started with Sirius/XM in March 2003, my friend in broadcasting had told me that, “This is never going to work. People are never going to pay or buy something that you’re going to get for free. You have regular stations why are you going to buy radio.” Then the iPod was coming out with all this stuff, it wasn’t going to work, and they weren’t enough subscribers to make talk radio work anyway. The radios were big and clunky and expensive and they weren’t built into cars. You name every obstacle possible you can think of, it was told to me back when we started satellite radio. Here we are 13 years later and almost every automobile manufacturer has satellite radio in it.

My intuition was telling me then this was going to be a good thing, I think satellite adoption will happen. I am telling you and Rare today and anybody else that will listen to me that internet radio adaption is going to happen. Just like the evolution of television to cable and from cable to satellite and from cable and satellite to HD now. You can see this and I’ll just give you a marker, in the Netherlands they’re going to by attrition they’re start phasing out broadcast licenses for terrestrial radio stations.

Why? They don’t need them anymore they’re becoming obsolete. People are getting their radio, their voice transmitted media or audio transmitted media – they’re getting it in their phones. All of us are carrying these smart phones around these days although I don’t know how smart some of them are. We’re all carrying around basically a little radio station, radios in our hands.

That’s the future, so what we’re going to do is we’re going to take the show and we’ve started our own network tentatively called the Remnant Radio Network although that name is going to change, it is going to change very soon to the official name. The first channel that’s going to be on that service is going to be called Crusade. Mike Church Show will be on 8am to 11 am central time live on Crusade. Crusade is going to be a 24/7 channel, it will have all original programming, much of it to start with will be stuff that I created and other projects that I’ve done that aren’t radio per say but are audio projects. We’re looking to bring great and upcoming talents and shows quite frankly that couldn’t get on terrestrial radio unless they bought time on a Sunday or a Saturday and shows that satellite radio was never interested in. I asked to do them and I was told no, so some great programming is coming peoples way.

Mike Church will air on that Crusade channel which will have an app and you’ll be able to get it at MikeChurch.com, you’ll be able to get it on other apps like Stitcher app it’ll be on there and it’s going to be free. So you won’t need a satellite radio subscription and it’s going to run 24/7 and they’ll be two rebroadcasts one in the afternoon and one overnight. And, you’re right, if people are excited about hearing the secular news with a Catholic twist or slant that I put on it lately. Not to say that it’s Catholic radio because it’s not but it is radio and it is entertainment that is tempered by an acknowledgement that there are higher laws at work then the laws that we’re told or the one’s that rule over us and there’s one eternal law.

It’s going to be exciting, there’s going to be great, entertaining. The show will not change it is going to be the exact same show that was done on Sirius and XM. The only difference now is everyone who has a smart phone or internet access will be able to access it. If you join on our site and become a member you will have full podcast and full download capabilities as soon as the show is aired.

Kurt Wallace: Well Mike Church, it’smikechurch.com, people can go to your website and they can find all sorts of things about who you are, what you’ve been able to accomplish in terms of both being a filmmaker and as a talk show host, the interviews and all the information, articles and that’s at mikechurch.com and then they can subscribe to your new network there correct?

Mike Church: They can subscribe right there to the founders pass that has been our membership service for the last eight years and will stay that way, and as I said you won’t need a subscription to get the radio channel. But you will need– any show that you here on our Crusade channel will be available for download will be in the podcast or download whatever you wish to call it. You can listen to it or download it with the membership.